Right place, right time. A couple of months ago at Mettle Works in Chelmsford. I stood in the repurposed cash lock-up grounds in awe of the spectacle – industrial remnants of the building, barbed wire crawl space visible atop high, white brick walls saturated by deep red light. Two walk-in vaults looming in the corridor to the left, held ajar by chains that teased passage into their ageing, darkened interiors. A unique setting and a treasure among Chelmsford’s increasingly vanishing music venues and cultural hotspots.
The opening set by Digitonal, aka Andrew Dobson, reverberated from a room-wide, six-foot-tall PA system and softened the abrasive surroundings, with an assured confidence. All of us present, floated through Digitional electronic and wind instrument atmospheres. Then disguising itself out of the blocks, comes ‘Exit City’, which I now believe to be one of my favourite electronic tracks. An inconspicuous change of pace, unlike the tracks previous. I find myself caught pleasantly off guard, as the track rolls unexpectedly into a piercing synthesiser riff. Full-body goosebumps, love of electronic music continuing to grow exponentially. A barrage of soundwaves flood the room, from the speakers behind. As the filter sweep brightens and intensifies the riff with each pass, musical joy washes over me, sacred moments.
The event was facilitated by James Adrian Brown (below) and regular touring partner Sulk Rooms with Digitional opening the show. This blog and host venue Mettle Works co-promoted also.
The Night Album by Digitonal
The Night Album by Digitional is a musical journey, one of particular humanity, the search for inner peace and acceptance of our convoluted timeline. A credit to Andrew’s ingenuity and musicianship, as he lays down his fifth studio album entirely solo. Not just a feat by this account, instead, making his mark on the breadth of electronic music that exists, with something unique. In his words, “the sound of an artist setting into his own voice after decades of evolution”.
Repeatedly interesting and possessing a staggering depth throughout. Each track is layered and crafted to perfection, downtempo magic bursting at the seams. From ‘The Winter Journal’, with its elegant intro, which rolls into an eye-watering acoustic bass line, which charms as it punctuates digital bleeps and the chime of glockenspiel-like tones. Through ‘dotdotdot’, the ethereal yet otherworldly overture. To ‘For The Birds’ and its crunchy, trip hop drum line, and classic Digitonal wind instrument and piano-guided melodies.
We are all on our own journeys, music comes along for the ride
Enjoying a broad range of music, as many of us do, is a wonderful symptom of our age of accessibility. In particular, I have a passionate love of film scores, soundtracks for television series, or video games. Absorbing myself, in the emotive ebb and flow of those beautifully crafted tracks provides such a visceral reminiscence of emotions, scenes, and experiences first brought about by the accompaniment of music with such potent storytelling devices.
The pairing of these mediums provides a level of interaction between consumer and story unlike anything else – dissonant, intense, world-building scores, and fine-tuned control over protagonist. For example, as you navigate stealthy through the ‘infected’ in The Last of Us. Or, in the grasp of Hans Zimmer’s orchestral Interstellar masterpiece, as Matthew McConaughey, at the helm of his spacecraft, doggedly battles against the gravitational pull of Gargantua. You get the picture: scene, music and emotion utterly inseparable from one and another.
It’s probably fair to say Andrew lacks the resources to create a video game alongside his album. However, his creation has a similar effect to that of which I’ve just described. Painting the story of The Night Album in vibrant colour, into one’s mind. Allowing for an individual world-building, each listen will have you engaging with a sound previously unheard. A trill buried deep into the melodic uncurling that comes to the fore. There’s no coming back from that moment, the only way forward is repeated listens, as you ‘Exit City’ with Digitonal. Engaging in a triumphant getaway from the moment you inhabit, from metropolis to pastures new; enlightenment or change of heart. Or, in his case from London to Suffolk, new beginnings etched into the album.
The end of the line
After the set, my girlfriend and I took a look around the vaults, allowing ourselves a minute to digest what we’d heard and enjoy the surroundings. Before finding a moment to thank Andrew for the gift he’d given us. I was there to enjoy music and support musicians but I didn’t quite realise what I stood to gain. Andrew had introduced me to The Night Album in a moment of spontaneity, a culmination of the wonder of live music, and a credit to his muscianship. The Night Album is now a friend that I hold dear, have, and will re-visit repeatedly under multiple scenarios.
Catch Digitonal at Woodbridge Ambient Music Festival on Saturday, 26 September.
Buy your copy of The Night Album now! Follow this link.
